Game 76: Rebound in Edmonton

The Rangers gave away a golden opportunity on Friday night in Calgary, and lost two important points in the race to avoid the wild card. Tonight, they face another bad team that can’t play defense in Edmonton, and would truly benefit from two points, no matter how they come. Edmonton has more weapons than Calgary, the product of years of top picks, but they haven’t been able to put it all together just yet. This isn’t a must-win, but it is certainly a should-win.

Dallas Eakins coaches the Oilers in a very similar fashion to Patrick Roy and the Avalanche, so you will see a lot of the same tonight that you did on Tuesday. On the forecheck they run an aggressive spread 2-1-2 without sitting on leads. The Oilers play a man-on-man, zone defense hybrid depending on puck location. On special teams, they run a 1-3-1 power play and rotate between a box and diamond penalty kill depending on puck location.

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11 comments

Why is AV an idiot if Miller isn’t in? If he were a righty or a PPG player I’d say you have a point. He doesn’t bring a ton to the table at this point in his young career. I would think next year he will have better luck cracking the NHL lineup on a regular basis. AV is big into those advanced (fancy stats) statistics. Millers aren’t very good. He’s getting better but still needs time. Maybe after camp next season he’s ready to play every day. If he were a righty, I bet he’s in the lineup most of this year. Or at least with the team instead of going to Connecticut.